Pina Colada Brie

I made this dish as an appetizer for Christmas day, we had to have something from the cookbook for everyone to rate! It turned out we had three things. My cousin Jennifer made the peanut clusters and my grandmother made the rice dressing. All were fantastic. 

For this recipe you start with Brie:

This is special Brie because I had to go to 4 different grocery store to find it! I started with Albertson's, then went to Hi Neighbor, then Calvin's and finally Whole Foods. I knew I should have started with Whole Foods, but I was trying to avoid the Christmas traffic. It wasn't too expensive though, $7. It cost a lot more than that in Nashville. 

You have to shave off all of the wax, which I just scraped away with a knife. Then you have to cut the Brie in half which is practically impossible with a knife because it sticks to it. So I used the little advice side note in the cookbook and cut it in half with dental floss. It worked like a charm. It's the same idea as cutting clay in pottery class. I can't believe nobody has ever thought to do that before. 

Layer all of the ingredients and you get a beautiful appetizer:

Aunt Aimee had a better picture:

I can't believe these were the only pictures that ended up on my camera : ( 

I know I took one before it went in the oven. It was beautiful, but I guess I'll have to make it again so you can see it up close. I loved cooking in mom's kitchen. There's room to spread out my ingredients and really make a mess. 

I would say the family was pretty impressed!